Face detection, face recognition, and facial tracking are finding an increasing number of uses and applications. The increase in potential applications for facial analyses has partly occurred as a result of the continuously increasing speed and capabilities of modern microprocessors. As a result, facial analysis can be used in a number of settings for various applications including biometrics, user interface applications, gaming application, social networking and other interpersonal commutations applications. The advancement in computing power of microprocessors has also made facial analysis functionality available on mobile devices, such as cell phones and other smart devices. Facial analysis may also be important going forward in relation to initiatives such as metadata standardization.
Although facial analysis techniques continue to improve, many current methods require either a high computation capability or suffer from limited face detection performance. Complicating issues, such as, faces not being oriented directly towards the camera or natural changes to the faces (e.g., eyes closed) can negatively impact the results of facial analyses. As applications for facial detection, recognition, and tracking are developed, these and other challenges should be overcome to provide further improvements in the area of facial analysis.